Chocolate chip cookies may seem a little trite and boring, but these put all other chocolate chip cookies to shame. In fact, if for some weird reason you need to impress friends with your baking skills, do it with these. They’re that good. Bring these to the office, and you’ll be a hero.
The difference with these from other CC cookies is that they’re thin and crispy, as opposed to thick and gooey. But there’s also a secret to these that the folks at Serious Eats discovered with this recipe: the use of light brown sugar and raw cane sugar in the recipe. This gives the cookie a hint of butterscotch flavor, making them notably delicious.
The recipe below is pretty much what Serious Eats offers, with some minor edits.
What you’ll need:
- 8 oz. low-protein all-purpose flour, such as Gold Medal blue label
- 8 oz. light brown sugar
- 3.5 oz. raw cane sugar
- 2t kosher salt; if using table salt, use about half as much by volume
- 1.5t baking soda
- 8 oz. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 8 oz. assorted chocolate chips, preferably no darker than 70%–use the best quality chips you can find
- 1 large egg, straight from the fridge, well beaten
- 1T, yes Tablespoon, vanilla extract
What to do:
Make sure your oven rack is in the middle slot in the oven and heat the oven to 350°F.
While the oven’s heating combine the flour, light brown sugar, raw cane sugar, salt and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor. Process until combined.
Add the cold butter and pulse to form a dry and powdery mix; comparable results cannot be produced by hand or with a stand mixer. Add the chocolate chips and pulse once or twice to combine. At this point, the mixture can be refrigerated up to one week in an airtight container or used immediately.
Transfer the mixed ingredients to a large bowl and add the egg and vanilla, stirring it well. Now the mixture may seem too crumbly and dry, but it’s not. Once the wet ingredients have been absorbed, knead the mixture by hand until it comes together like regular cookie dough.
Divide the dough into 50 or so portions with a 1-tablespoon scoop. I used a melon baller. After you’ve divided them into portions, at that point they can be refrigerated in a sealed bag for a week or frozen for three months for baking later. Let them warm to about 70 degrees before baking, though.
Now it’s time to get baking. Arrange the dough balls on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan (do not use a silicone mat), leaving at least 2 or 3 inches between cookies. These things really spread out when cooking; you’ll be surprised.
Bake until thin and golden brown, with an even color from edge to center, about 16 minutes. When they’re done, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until they’re at room temperature. They need to cool to crisp up. They’re actually really floppy when they come out of the oven.
These cookies will keep at least six weeks in an airtight container, but it seems impossible that they would last that long, unless you’re a cookie monk or something.
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